How Do You Watch TV Shows & Movies? [MakeUseOf Poll]

Last week we asked you which desktop browser is currently the best. After holding the first round roughly three years ago, we wondered if Firefox could still hold its own as it did back in 2010, and whether IE and Safari managed to gain some popularity. Curious? The results are in front of you.

Out of 1,219 votes in total, 3% think Safari is the best desktop browser, 4% think Internet Explorer deserves the title, 7% like Opera best, 34% voted for Firefox, and by a long margin, Chrome took the prize with no less than 50% of the votes. 2% voted for “other”.

Full results and this week’s poll after the jump.

Not only did Firefox lose almost 7% of its voters to Chrome, Opera too went down from 10% to 7%, which gave Chrome a boost from the nearly 41% it had last time to its current 50%. Impressive!

Want to make some extra MakeUseOf reward points? The most useful comment on the poll will be awarded 150 points!

The world has come a long way since we could watch movies only in the theater and TV shows on only on TV. Today, there are many ways, some more legal than others, to get your movie and TV fix. I’m aware that this not a very stable arena, and things change and move around all the time, so please vote according to what you do currently. I’m also aware that you might be using several methods to watch your favorites movies and shows, so for the purpose of this poll, please choose the method you use most often. Remember, this poll is anonymous.

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Anonymous

January 20, 2013

We live overseas, so all the “legal” online methods for watching US TV is off-limits to us. I don’t want to pay for something I only want to watch once, so, as long as the media companies decide they don’t want to make the effort for us to watch things legally and easily, we download. And no, I’m never going to pay to watch something like Once Upon A Time that will only be watched once upon a time. I’d pay for something like Hulu if it would work for us. We pay loads of money for local cable which we never watch, (except for some ESPN, Discovery and news on occasion), so adding something like Hulu wouldn’t kill us, but we can’t. pleh

Florin Ardelian

January 20, 2013

What do you mean by “overseas”?

Lisa Santika Onggrid

January 21, 2013

S/He means outside USA. We don’t have access to Netflix/Hulu/etc, so the only way to watch those TV shows legally is by using cable subscription. Some people don’t like this because most cable subscription is overkill for something that will only be used every now and then. Not to mention this method might not work for everything. For example: I want undubbed (and unedited) version shows, meaning I have to get the original version of said shows. This is by no means justification for piracy, but merely explanation.

Glenn Hyde

January 21, 2013

Get yourself a proxy service – I use reliablehosting.com for less than $75 per year. I live in Canada and like you am also unfairly geographically restricted from US content. I feel like a red headed stepchiId. I simply enable the proxy server (easy) and then I can download all US content because I come in to Hulu/Netflix/Apple etc as a New York IP. I then connect my laptop to my HD TV using HDMI and watch anything that I want. It also helps to have a US charge card and a US bank account too but they are easy to get. You can also get a United Kingdom IP proxy service as well to watch UK television if that interests you. Hope this helps!

Paul Harris

chrisXcrash

January 20, 2013

I do three options. I watch tv shows and movies on tv. I buy some stuff too and I download other stuff. It depends. If its a movie that I’d watch once or a tv show that I’ve been following since it started airing, then I’d just watch it on tv. If it’s a movie that I’d like to keep but I don’t think its worth buying, I’d just download it. If it’s a tv show in which I missed the first season, then I’d download it. Finally, all the really good movies and tv shows I buy.

salim benhouhou

Graham Richardson

January 20, 2013

I think like many people its a mix of all these options. You cant beat seeing a film in the cinema but I probably see only 3 or 4 films like this in a year. I will often use a mix of broadcast at the time TV and the various watch again options on my TV to catch up and enjoy full series.
I do download films usualy for free from probably dodgy uploads on YouTube mostly. I am slowly introducing my son to the films I have enjoyed over the years which I think he might like too. I will find a free download save it as mp4 and copy across the his PS3. If he does indeed like it we will then seek it out on DVD which is our preferred option. I dont feel the movie industry is loosing out by my downloading as I then will go on to buy.

Gene Wisniewski

January 21, 2013

I have to agree with Graham Richardson that it’s a mixture of all of them. Toss in a cell for on the go and DVR to round it out.

Mike Freeman

January 20, 2013

Ok, this one was really difficult to find an acceptable answer for. I marked “I watch them on TV or go to the movie theater.” However, while we most often watch TV shows on live TV or DVR’d, we usually stream movies rather than go to a movie theater. Combining the two together makes for an impossible poll to answer.

Yaara Lancet

January 25, 2013

Yeah, I understand. It’s sometimes hard to come up with and include every possible answer in these polls, and it’s only reasonable that the answer you picked is not correct 100% of the time. That’s why I asked you to pick the one you use most often. Thanks for participating!

Tara Moser

January 20, 2013

If I will watch the movie over and over I will buy it at the store. If it is something that will only be a one time thing I will rent it from amazon and watch it on my kindle fire hd. I don’t like to download because of all the fines and laws that come with that can of worms. Wish you could get pass all that because that would save me money. Amazon prime is great but it also limits what shows you can watch for free that is.

Edward Bellair

Hiew Yau

January 21, 2013

Daily life in front of the pc has become much too MUCH. I do almost everything in front of the PC, facebook, work, much of my socializing with friends, most of my interest finding and satisfying. Only thing left to do away from the PC / Internet is tv shows and movies, which I rarely have time for, and spending that time in front of the tv or movie theatre is actually so much more enjoyable. I know downloading save cost, and is easy, but sometimes, having something away from the PC/Internet and doing it with family is still much more enjoyable.

Yaara Lancet

Ivan Biolango

January 21, 2013

For me I watch TV either online or at home TV appliance and sometimes was able to get some advertisements that I wanted to have. Usually, people watch TV at home but geek like us most of the time drawn in computer .

Akhil Kumar

January 21, 2013

I’m from India, so no netflix or hulu….I dont watch much movies on TV, because 1)The latest movies don’t come quickly and 2) 90% of them are censored, that’s the party pooper. I download almost everything through bittorrent. Most of the awesome shows aren’t available on TV, right now (Dexter, HIMYM, The Walking Dead). So yeah, Me and my friends have to download everything through torrent. Plus its cheaper :)

Dominoscr

January 21, 2013

I am a hybrid user. I love going to the theater, subscribe to Netflix and Hulu as well as use XBMC for streaming TV shows from the network sites. I don’t pay for cable so I go out to watch live sporting events at resteraunts and occasionally go to the actual games when I can. I don’t miss cable at all. As for downloading or owning a physical copy if something, I decided to donate all of my physical media to my local library a year ago and don’t regret it. I have a lot more space and I don’t need to manage/organize all that stuff to access it.

Yaara Lancet

January 25, 2013

That’s a pretty inspiring idea! I don’t own a lot of physical media, but if I did, that would be a great thing to do.

prasanth vikkath

January 21, 2013

Now a days everyone have internet and cable connections in their house. Now internet can get you anything, then why you want to rent a movie which might be terrible movie. I my self watch movies through internet by renting or downloading a blue-ray print. When you watch a movie in TV you will get frustrated because 2 hr movies will extended for 3 hr, 1 hr full of ads… LOL… If you have internet then why you are watching all these ads.

Greg Williams

January 21, 2013

Unfortunately, I’m one of those that marked download as the choices, as everyone else has pretty much agreed, is lacking. I don’t have any type of cable TV connection at my house, so that is a no go. I do watch the majority of my shows on HULU, yet, I don’t have a subscription. So that one is a no go. I’d sign up for a subscription on Netflix, but I’ll go a month or two just watching the 3 or 4 shows I follow religiously on Hulu, and that will be all the “TV” I’ll watch for that time frame. As for movies, I will download them first, usually at like 2 or 3 in the morning in just watch them when the download finishes. If the movie is any good, I’ll buy the movie on dvd or blue ray.
I used to buy movies on a whim, and then only watch them once, maybe twice ever. Spending $20 on a single movie for a max of 3 hours of pleasure was no longer economical. I did the same with season of TV shows, but, again, I’m not going to spend the nearly $50 on one season if I don’t know if I’ll like it. Or if they will finish the TV show in a fulfilling manner…

Xeon Shu

Ronald Moore

January 21, 2013

I think another category is needed – “Check them out from the library”. Almost every movie I see now is from the library collection. Our libraries in Indiana get new movies on the day that the movies are released on DVD’s.

Yaara Lancet

January 25, 2013

In this case, you can vote for the “I buy/rent DVDs”, getting them from the library is a lot like renting them.

You have the same name as BSG’s creator. :)

Ronald Moore

January 25, 2013

Same name but I have a lot less money. Battle Star Galactica was a great show and I wish Moore would do another scifi show.

Yaara Lancet

Sean Seebran

January 21, 2013

For me it comes down to Firefox and Chrome, the fact is that I have Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome all installed on my PC.
I rarely use Internet Explorer, while I find Fire Fox to be a great browser it tends to be pretty slow and although I do use it a lot for business purposes, I must say that my all-round browser of choice is definitely Google Chrome for speed and simplicity.

Lisa Santika Onggrid

January 21, 2013

I haven’t watched TV for a while. Since I got my own laptop I pretty much ditched it. Nothing worth watching in our television other than news, which I can easily get from other sources (namely newspapers and internet). For shows I like but not available locally, honestly, I download.

Anonymous

chet norris

Ben

January 21, 2013

I watch the worthwhile/critically acclaimed movies in the theater, then usually download the rest, except for the few movies that are worth buying on dvd and watching over and over. I usually don’t have the time to watch TV shows, so I never download them, and most TV shows are worthless anyway. I use two methods for getting movies: 1) download for free on the numerous DDL (direct download links) blogs that provide free links on file-hosting sites. or 2) I Use a service called Put.io that enables you to use the bittorent network without the hassle of possibly getting copyright notices from your isp. It downloads torrents for you, then the user can download the files from their servers. I pay $5 a month for unlimited movies at blueray quality. The best thing is that the service itself is completely legal, just like file-hosting sites. They operate under the DMCA. Until Hollywood can get its act together and offer a service that allows you to download movies at high-quality, for a certain fee a month, Put.IO and torrents are the easiest way to get content.

Anonymous

Robert Owens

January 21, 2013

I don’t subscribe to cable TV, so I do a combo of DVD rentals (through Netflix and Redbox) and live streaming via sites like Hulu and CBS.com, among others.

At this point in time, it’s very difficult to “put all your eggs in one basket,” so to speak. By not having cable TV, my ability to view live TV, particularly sports and news, is limited. And although going to a movie theater can be expensive, it’s good to treat yourself once in a while. Cable TV has lots of advantages, but it’s an expense I can live without, since 90 percent of the time there’s nothing on TV that I care to watch.

I don’t buy individual episodes of TV shows, though. It might not be logical to think this way, but it somehow seems wasteful to pay money for shows that are mostly enjoyable fluff. If they’re not available for free online (even with commercials), I don’t watch them. This can be painful when a show I really want to watch, such as the new season(s) of “Dallas,” are not available for free online.

And I don’t bittorrent. Don’t want the RIAA breathing down my neck. :-)

Thomas Le

kOztrich

January 22, 2013

I use an a couple of Android apps and I have a Roku. The apps are fantastic, one is DroidTV ($8,99 for 3 months subscription) and it provides almost all primetime episodes on network TV, also has some shows from HBO and Showtime. The other app is called TV Portal ($1.99 one time payment) and it has just about every primetime show going back to at least the 80’s and it has good, new movies also. The Roku provides shows from channels such as Discovery,Animal Planet, History channel, the Smithsonium Channel, etc., etc. I either watch the apps on my smartphone, tablet or by hooking up to my big screen HDTV via HDMI from the either my smartphone or tablet.

Yaara Lancet

January 25, 2013

Very helpful! Were you a registered used a comment like this could have been worth 150 reward points. :)

Audrey Johnson

January 23, 2013

I have had a subscription to Netflix since 2005. I bought the subscription, because I was very concerned about what my children were watching and had access to on TV, and at the movies. being a parent, it is very important to me what my children are being exposed to while watching TV, or when they are away from home at the movie theater. I am able to set the type of movies that my children can watch, and I am able to read or watch a preview of The TV show or movie, or read what the movie is about BEFORE, my children watch it. It only costs me $9 a month and my children can even view the movies or TV shows on their computer or through their X-Box.
Wouldn’t use anything else, because I am in control of what my family is watching